Prove all things; hold fast to which is good.
(1 Thess 5:21)
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try
the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out
into the world. (1 John 4:1)
These verses are sometimes cited to “prove” that the Bible is the final source of
authority and guidance for a Christian. The irony is that these verses cannot
possibly mean such, even if Sola Scriptura is true. After all,
contemporary with Paul, Timothy, and John, the books of the biblical canon were
still being inscripturated. Furthermore, the apostle John twice acknowledges
that his written record of Jesus does not deny other extra-biblical records or
traditions (John 20:30; 21:35), so long as these traditions do not oppose
his teaching and that of the other apostles (cf. 1 John 2:18-19; 4:1-3; 2 John
7-9). For John, the test for authentic Christian teaching is not “Is this
written?” (or “Is it part of the Biblical canon?”) Paul echoes this in 1 Tim
4:1, yet it was the same Paul who told Timothy to “. . . stand fast, and hold
the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or by our epistle”
(2 Thess 2:15 [see my post on this verse and how the NIV distorts the underlying Greek]) and “hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of
me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim 1:13).
Furthermore, the warning in 1 John 4:1 is not against those claiming to
have additional revelation from God, but those who deny the humanity of Jesus
Christ. This is explained in 1 John 4:2-3:
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every
spirit that confesseth that Jesus is come in the flesh is of God: And every
spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of
God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whetherof ye have heard that it
should come; and even now already it is in the world.
The phrase, “is come in the flesh” is ἐν σαρκὶ ἐληλυθότα and literally means “has
come in the flesh.” John’s comments are aimed against those that would argue in
favour of a Docetic Christology, that is, one that denied that Christ was truly
human (he only appeared human, to have suffered, to have died, and so
forth, but in reality, he did not). LDS Christology, and the Christology of the
Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price are
antithetical to such a Christology. Note, for instance, Christ’s own words,
revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith, in D&C 19:18-19 which stresses
the true humanity of Jesus:
Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all to tremble
because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and
would that I might not drink the bitter cup and shrink—Nevertheless, glory be
to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparation unto the children of
men.
